"Fetal heartbeat" laws are all the rage right now.
Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Mississippi have passed bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Similar bills are working their way through the legislatures of South Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama.
Of the bills passed, only Georgia allows an exception for rape and incest; in Alabama the sponsor of a bill that would ban nearly all abortions threatened to kill the legislation if rape or incest exceptions were added.
These laws effectively outlaw abortion at six weeks, just two weeks after a missed period, a point at which many women don't even realize they are pregnant. The likelihood that a preteen or teenage girl would know she is pregnant in time to beat this cutoff is almost nonexistent. Indeed, the only reason an 11-year-old Ohio girl recently impregnated by a rapist wouldn't be forced to give birth is because the law ins't in effect yet and its implementation will likely be delayed by legal challenges.
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